SPOILERS: Yvonne Strahovski Teases Chuck Series Finale

At last week’s TCA event, Yvonne Strahovski spoke with TVLine about the upcoming Chuck series finale and gave them just a teeny tease about how the series ends. Naturally Ausiello and Co. are trying to play up any angsty angle possible in their narrative, so I’ll just post Yvonne’s comments, sans commentary:

“I can’t tell you my expectations, because then I reveal what the finale is not.”

“I had very specific things that I thought it was going to be, and it turned out to be not what I thought.”

The final leg of Team Bartowski’s journey “surprised me to the point where I kind of felt like an audience member myself, sitting on the edge of my seat wondering, ‘Oh my gosh, how is this going to get resolved?’”

“There will be a satisfying ending,” Strahovski reassures, “but it’s almost slightly, slightly tragic, the lead-up* to what happens.”

“We’re going to see a lot of the focus on the Chuck and Sarah love story, which is the heart of the show.”

*Emphasis mine, in order to underscore that the wrap up itself isn’t “almost slightly tragic”. If Sarah suffered a miscarriage, I’d say that was undeniably tragic, not “almost slightly tragic.” Again, Chuck isn’t that kind of show.

Agreed. I think that’s what it’s leading up to as well. And honestly, if it turns out to be that, Im going to find that extremely boring and predictable. And I hope the series doesnt end with at least Chuck getting completely out of the spy game. he worked so hard for it. Sarah I can understand, especially if she ends up pregnant. And I still miss the intersect. No matter what Chuck can do without it, it just isnt the same and I dont find Chuck as fun at all.

IVE JUST WATCHED SEASONS 1-3 OVER THE WEEKEND AND IM JUST GOING TO START WATCHING SEASON 4 OFF CHUCK NOW IVE ALREADY PRE-ORDERED SEASON 5 I HOPE THEY DONT KILL ANYONE OFF. CHUCK IS ONE OFF THE GREATEST SHOWS EVERY TO BE ON TV .

I thought she expressed her expectations at Comic Con–maybe that was hopes. If I recall, she wanted a finality happily ever after ending. If I were to guess, they end the show more open ended than that.

I just hope a good portion of the audience isn’t left scratching their heads like they were after Morgan downloaded the Intersect. Like the whole Decker conspiracy, that turned out okay but ended up being a very limited part (bordering on throwaway) of the Season 5 plot (so far). This time the “cliffhanger” will be the last impression the show makes. So, I hope they make it a good one…

If I were to pick an ending, it would be a back to the beginning scenario with Chuck and Sarah out of the spy game enjoying a normal life. Ending scene is a flash forward with Sarah reading bedtime stories to the kids, Chuck bids them good night and goes out to the garage to putter around a bit. Against the wall you see a bunch of monitors and an Apple Macintosh with the cursor flashing after the “Do you wish to activate?” prompt… Fade to black.

I believe this again points to Sarah having a miscarriage… which really shouldn’t happen in Chuck, but the first half of season 3 certainly demonstrated that the writers are capable of doing some very stupid things.

While the ending itself might be happy, having to deal with issues like miscarriage will make it feel rotten and unsatisfying.

Mel is right…a miscarriage wouldn’t be “almost slightly tragic.” That would be very tragic. Yvonne’s using those specific words, to me, seems to indicate that it not anything so horrendous as a miscarriage.

Maybe Casey doesn’t go off with Verbanski, maybe he dies. That would fit, BUT I wont like it. It would prod Chuck and Sarah into getting out of the spy business, but I would really hate it to end like that.

We can sort of guess, not so much what will happen, but how it will happen.

None of the finales have been in my list of favorite episodes. They all felt rushed to me. Like they wanted to cram every idea into them. That made them pretty unsatisfying to me. We spent a whole season building up to the wedding. It was the true climax of the story they were telling. Did it really only deserve a couple of minutes of air time?

There have been 6 episode that were written to act as series finales.

Ring
Other Guy
Ring II
Push Mix
Cliffhanger
Goodbye

In all of them, the story that had been teased for the preceeding episodes wasn’t resolved until the last second. In the case of Push Mix, I think the credits were already rolling.

So if you expect an epilog where the last half hour is the characters saying goodbye to us, I don’t think we’ll get that.

I expect tense plot right up to the very end with Chuck and Sarah’s future, possible pregnancy, and where the other characters are doing resolved in summary as the credit are about to roll.

Dunno about you but Chuck versus the Ring (s2 finale) is in my top 3 episodes of all time, I´ve watched it several times and it´s probably the most complete one, has perfect scenes with a lot of action and drama, all perfectly balanced. But anyway, lets see what season 5 brings us

yes, but this is the first time the writers know for sure that the show is ending. all of the other “possible series finales” were made so the writers could use it as the series finale, but would also be able to move forward from it in the event the show got renewed. “goodbye” has confirmed to be the series finale, so they’re writing it to only be a series finale

I never liked any of the finales, but Push Mix was the best episode for me. If the series would have ended with this episode, I would’ve been content. We had a fair dose of all the cast. The Part with Jeffster was very, VERY well done and the ending where all you could hear was the machine cleaning the floor while in the background we saw Chuck proposing to Sarah which is what most of the fans wanted to see.

I’ll say it again, in my opinion, Chuck vs. the Push Mix was the best written finale of Chuck and is in my top 5 of all the episodes..

What purpose woud further babytalk have? “Pleasing shippers” in not a valid response. Last episode gave Chuck and Sarah a chance to tackle the subject and they basically agreed that they want to become parents when the time is right. Isn’t that enought? Some final moment “I’m pregnant” revelation would be just a stupid cliche. As long as they survive the finale we know they are determined to make babies at some point.

I see that some shippers want the finale to be basically just fanfiction, but fanfiction doesn’t make good television and is mostly just bad writing. Not to mention creepy.

Obviously I can’t speak for Yvonne, but if I had to guess I think she thought CHUCK would be wrapped up in a pretty bow, with everybody happy and with Chuck and Sarah exiting the spy life for good.

That might still happen, but seems as though the lead up to it is gunna be one heck of a roller coaster ride, in a way that Yvonne did not anticipate.

I am encouraged to see that Yvonne was still enthralled with script and the ending, even if it was not what she wanted.

Interseted to see her interviews in the coming days, especially on attack of the show, cuz they will probably ask some good CHUCK questions. Maybe Yvonne reveals something that adds to what she has already said, and helps us put the pieces together.

As for a miscarriage, I could see CHUCK maybe doing this and doing it well. When CHUCK wants to do good drama they can. And I think it would be a compelling storyline, that could bring Chuck and Sarah even closer together.

Now not saying I want this to happen, and as Mel said it most likley won’t, I am just saying that if they went that route, it has the potential to work.

And just out of curiousity what does everybody think qualifies as “slightly tragic”, seems like an oxymoron to me, so I got nothing

I agree with @jmc above. The desire for a “normal life” has been a theme for much of this season (and has come up in past seasons) so I am pretty sure that Chuck and Sarah will have one at the end.

I would also bet that they are settled in the house that was featured in 5×01 (“zoom”) and 5×08 (“baby”) at the end. I would also bet that pregnancy/kids are part of this in some way. (A miscarriage seems unnecessarily harsh and so I don’t think this will happen on this show.)

Other thoughts: Casey runs off with Verbanski. Not sure what is in cards for Morgan and Alex. Not sure what is “slightly tragic”. Fedak hinted at a death, but that wouldn’t be “slightly tragic” unless it is the Buy More.

I’m really thinking there will be a death. I’ve been thinking it for a while, but now this makes me think it more. The episode is called Chuck vs the Goodbye, so that could imply someone might die, and then at Comic-Con, Chris Fedak said not everyone on the stage will survive till the end.

However, Yvonne said its slightly tragic, so maybe its just a side character. Like Jeff or Lester.

I just assumed Mama B returned because Chuck needs everyone involved for whatever is happening in this episode. But I suppose it could be because someone has died. Used to think it’d be Beckman, but I have no idea.

Ya with so limited time left a miscarriage storyline probably won’t be done, I agree with you guys. But hey, they have done crazy things before, so who knows.

As for Linda Hamilton I was thinking that she probably knows a lot about Chuck’s past that he doesn’t even know. And with Chuck going back to his roots, maybe Mama B plays into that somehow. I also speculated that maybe Mama B dies protecting Chuck or Ellie. Both parents made mistakes in the past that caused them to abandon their children in order to protect them. Papa B died helping Chuck and I could see Mama B having the same fait. Like they both made the ultimate sacrafice to protect their kids, after being absent for so much of their childhood.
This would also take care of the death that might happen and could qualify as “slightly tragic”.

The fact that the writters have already forgotten much of their own story line, for example that the only reason CHuck and Sarah cant afford a dream home is because all the bank acounts were frozen. Well with Verbanski dead and all that resolved all the accounts are liquid again and they are loaded..It shows me that the ending will be like many others. Leaving more questions than answers and nothing really getting resolved…I love the show but I can already tell the ending will be lazy, unimaginative, and suck….

I wouldn’t get to worked up over that detail, for all we know the CIA found out it was dirty money (technically speaking) and continued to freeze it. I know they should have said that on screen, but there are a lot of things they should have said on screen that we have to figure out for ourselves. CHUCK is just that kind of show.

For me as long as I can come up with plausable ways to explain away the plot holes and missed details, I just roll with it.

why don’t you think that something will happen to chuck?? It’s final season and there was a bruise zac’s face in 10 days left pic… It’s chuck… and It’s time… casey, sarah hurt again and again… I think It’s enough for them…

Toni- I agree with what you said Yvonne’s two most important comments were. I am especially glad to hear Yvonne say that ” the Chuck and Sarah love story is the heart of the show”. It certainly was to me, but I know there were others who seemed to disagree as far as that being the main story line of “Chuck” (i.e. romance- too much or not enough).

For being a spoof spy series “Chuck” produced some great character relationships, and I think the Chuck and Sarah relationship development turned into one of the very best TV Love Story themes of any TV I have seen. I never would have thought that was going to come from this “comedy” (as it is often refered to). Zack, Yvonne, writers, and creators should be especially very proud of this aspect of the show.

I have no basis for this but I think I remember hearing romours about the death of Big Mike a couple months ago, he might die from a heart attack while eating a 6″ sub. I reckon Jeff will become the new assistant manager of the Buy More & in order to help Chuck, Sarah & the rest of Team B Jeff and Lester will have to blow up the store – he’s been threatening to do it for years why should he lol. With the insurance payout Chuck & Sarah buy their dream house. The last 10 minutes will be a ‘five year later’ “flash” forward! I hope its open ended! The last scene will be General Beckman with Casey & Morgan knocking @ Chuck & Sarah’s front door – Sarah answering – you can hear Chuck shouting “who is it honey” as he walks up to the front door, next thing their 5 yr old son or daughter runs up to Sarah calling Mommy and hiding behind her legs in fear of the three until Casey bends down to say hello – we hear the child say “Uncle John” with excitment & moves from behind Sarah & reachs up to him! The last thing we here is General Beckman saying “Walker, Bartowski we have a situation” and we Sarah closing the red door behind them after they enter.

I had a wee chuckle about how two words “slightly tragic” have us all doing deep analysis into possibilities. Man I feel for the cast in these last rounds of interviews every word will be discected for meaning. The pressure.

I am trusting that the team that gave us the show we love will finish it as a gift to us hardcore fans. If I think too much about it I’ll never be able to get any sleep before finale day.

i’m not sure what’s gonna happen on the end. somebody will die, that’s for sure. maybe that would be casey. but when I saw trailer of the chuck vs. the Bo I was confused. casey was crying and Sarah was trying to punch somebody.

Could it be possible that the slightly tragic lead-up could be that Sarah finds out she’s unable to have kids? It’s not as ‘dark’ as her suffering from a miscarriage and I don’t think the writers would go down that route so maybe that’s a possibility?

Mel- You keep saying that Chuck isn’t the type of show to explore a miscarriage. I’ve seen sit-coms that have gone there (King of Queens comes to mind). Chuck can be at least as dramatic as most sit-coms. Although, I’m not sure you would consider a miscarriage ‘slightly tragic’ – unless Yvonne was referring to something else.

As I’ve said repeatedly, Chuck is not the kind of show to throw in a miscarriage at the end of the series. Maybe they could have done it at the beginning of the season, with time to deal with the emotional fallout for Chuck & Sarah (and the rest of Team Bartowski), but with so little time until the SERIES finale? It doesn’t fit with what we’ve seen on the show so far.

Another thought would be that Sarah is hurt and won’t be able to have children at all. I would view that still as tragic not slightly tragic. You have way more faith in the show runners than I do about something like this not happening.

I would be very careful about minutely dissecting Yvonne’s wording. It’s not like she carefully composed them for a press release. She was in the middle of a verbal conversation (at the TCA Party?) in which she wasn’t sure what to say or not.

Addendum: I also don’t understand why having your father murdered in front of you is okay for Chuck to do (and they did), but miscarriage is offlimits. As someone else said, sitcoms have done that storyline.

That’s not saying that I think that it’s going to happen, but I don’t think it’s impossible.

Think back over the last 80+ episodes: have we EVER seen a child harmed on this show? Has there ever been a single reference to miscarriage or the death of a child? We have 4 episodes left, and we just saw Sarah rescue a baby. Tell me, how does a miscarriage fit into what we know about the show at this point? Yes, they’ve gone dark before, and shockingly so, but to bring Chuck & Sarah to this point of happiness, dreaming about their life together, and then rip it apart by losing a baby at the end of the series? That doesn’t fit with anything we’ve seen over the last 4 1/2 years.

Hey JMC, thanks alot for coming up with that Yvonne interview. Stranger and stranger. Do not agree with you about the miscarriage. With Mel on that. But, I also am scared the finale might ruin my viewing pleasure. I am just going to go with the creators are screwing with us and trust that as usual everything will be fine. I can’t see them destroying five years of greatness with one last show.

Maybe it’s not a miscarriage, but takes a star wars twist. Maybe sarah has a chance of dieing during birth. It would be cool to see an episode like when ellie was pregnant again. And i really hope sarah has a Phase Three incident where she goes crazy to save chuck. I really want to see their fire relit because to me it’s been bland the last few episodes.

My guess is Buy More and Castle will die for real this time and not be rebuilt. Buy More is a signficant character of the show since the beginning and Chuck had been working there for the last 5 years and build it to what it is this season, so it’s slightly tragic but not a real tragedy that it died. I do not believe Fedak and the writers will put any one of the human characters to death or there will be a miscarriage, as Mel and many of you have said, Chuck is just not that kind of show, they really appreciate their fans so will definitely not break our hearts like that in the end. I expect to smile through my tears while watching the finale.

Having watched Papa B. killed off we know that characters can and will die on this show close to our inner circle of characters around Chuck that are his family around the various dinner table scenes (main cast). I tend to believe the main cast are off limits in the event that the show is renewed. In this case, the door is closing so as I’ve said the safeties are off for the writers. With that in mind I feel like we’re going to see some deaths in or up into the finale.

Not Safe:
Mama B, Lester, Jeff, General Beckman, Alex, Big Mike.

Likely Safe:
Morgan

Safe:
Ellie, Devon, Casey, Sarah & Chuck

After the fan backlash at Morgan having the intersect, I think the writers may have been generally confounded about “why” people didn’t like Morgan having the intersect, perhaps it would be pleasing to the fans for Morgan to be the consummate hero in the end and die for his buddy. The Buy Morons (I hate using that term) are also possible candidates getting caught in some sort of crossfire of death trying to help in some way. Casey’s daughter Alex getting wacked is a possibility. Mama B seems like the most likely death against this new foil we’ll be meeting. That will make him dangerous and will mean Chuck has a real reason to stop him.

To paraphrase Peter’s interview with the Bobs in Office Space to the Chuck writers: “Listen… It’s been really fun watching Chuck. Good luck with killing off those characters in the finale. I hope they go out really well.”

And more:
We turned to series star Yvonne Strahovski to get the scoop on his character, Nicholas Quinn, a former CIA agent-turned-mercenary. “He takes something away from Chuck and Sarah, and it may not necessarily be something physical.”

http://www.tvguide.com/News/MegaBuzz-Castle-Greys-House-1041420.aspx

As I thought, it’s probably something immaterial.
– chance for normal life?
– their marriage?
– ability to be together?

Ability to have kids? That Sarah can´t have kids? I don´t know but she was surely checked out by the doctors after being administered the antidote to the Norseman plus she took a pregnancy test. I think that´s not the case.

Maybe their normal life hopefully there relationship survives and the writers don´t screw the fans after we fought for them.

Im quite surprised nobody has mentioned the fact that as with morgan, sarah may start to forget things with the intersect, and she could end up forgetting chuck and so the series may have come a whole circle only for something to happen in the final moments for her to remember the love they had, errr i dunno just a guess. P.s if they kill of Casey there going to be hell to pay!!!!

It has been discussed widely elsewhere, and spoiler information from the last two episodes indeed points to Sarah losing her memories. No guarantees about her getting it back before the show’s over, either.

Well, since we just found out Sarah has the Intersect about 13 hours ago, there hasn’t been a lot of time to build up spec on that. Check this week’s episode comment thread here on the main site and in the forum.

I swear I either remember a thread or starting one at the mid-season discussing Sarah getting the intersect and a tragedy that would take place if she somehow got it and ended up forgetting Chuck like Morgan who started losing his memories when he had it in him for a bit. (This was around the time fans were bashing Chuck’s beloved side kick for having the intersect.) Wonder if fans bash Sarah for using it on purpose Vs. Morgan getting it accidentally? I wasn’t thrilled with the Morgan intersect but I also was curious to see how it would work.

I still feel like Season 3 was the best one. It had the most twists, included the introduction of the Intersect 2.0, and was the most satisfying, as Chuck and Sarah finally became Charah. I’m just saying, it was definitly my favorite. The rest of the seasons seem to be lacking is all.

I don’t think that Sarah will forget she is with Chuck, if you remeber back it took quite some time for Morgan to start losing his memories. Also people who lose memories tend to lose the memories that are the weakest and we know that Sarah’s memories of Chuck as a partner are the strongest.

After watching episode 11 and how they deal with Sarah having the intersect and the title of episode 12 “Chuck vs Sarah” There is something big and catastrophic on the horizon for Episdoe 12 and 13 (the 2 hour finale) on twitter feeds there are mentions that they were shooting in Australia… In some synopsis it has been leaked that Chuck and allies (expected and unexpected) have to save Sarah… the question then being save Sarah from who? With the new villain who has been a part of all the stuff Chuck went through from season one to present being Quinn, and with the way Episode 11 ends who else would there be?
If Quinn has been out to destroy Chuck from the beginning then it stands to reason that it ends where it began. With the Sarah we know being destroyed as a casualty, and with Ellie’s help they become the next version of Agent X with a new identities implanted Chuck and Sarah leave with no memory of their spy life or of the last five years, and disappear with the new identities that Casey provided earlier in the season. Living out their lives in the house with the white picket fence.

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